Murder in the Round

Well, that was a bit of a surprise.  Not completely unwelcome, but definitely ahead of schedule.  It was something she would have to think on today.

Not that she needed this burden today.  There was so much to do at work, and now to have this dwell on.  She wanted to tell Jackie first, but that meant waiting until they were both off work tonight.

Ramona finished preparing a quick sandwich to take to work.  Leftover Boston Butt with slices of Colby Pepperjack cheese, slathered in mayo and Dijon mustard.  Vegan, she was not.

Ramona Adams was the legal secretary at Cooper & Strickland, Crowley's most prominent legal firm.  Of course, that was like being the largest goldfish in a one-gallon tank.  Nevertheless, it was an entertaining and challenging job, and she got to see a wide variety of Dixon County's most interesting people.

Even though she wasn't a paralegal yet (still finishing courses at Okefenokee Tech), the firm's senior partner, Thomas Cooper, was starting to give her more responsibility over some cases.  One of those most recently given to her was to assist the vet, Dabs Denison, in getting disability benefits.  Although they had not been secured yet, she felt her assertiveness was getting him closer to the front of the line.  She had to admit, even though she despised Congressman Stan Winston's politics, that his office had done a lot to assist her.  She had heard rumors that it was Sheriff Steel's influence that had prodded the Congressman.  Now Sheriff Alan Steel was someone she had voted for, and would gladly vote for again.  He had been by far the best sheriff Crowley had ever had in working with the African American community.

Ramona and her husband, Jackie, lived near the edge of Crowley's minority area, referred to as the Onion Patch.  They lived on Cedar Drive, just off of Magnolia Street.  When they looked for a house shortly after Jackie got his Vice Principal's job at Reagan Middle School, they were subtly discouraged from the better white neighborhoods, and constantly redirected to homes in the Onion Patch.  When they were shown the house on Cedar, they just gave in.  It was going to be substantially more house than they could get in the white neighborhoods and left them enough money to remodel to their tastes.  She knew that the Onion Patch had a reputation for more crime than other areas, but she had grown up in that neighborhood, and she knew that there were also a lot of good people living there.  And she was comfortable with her children going to Crowley Elementary School, a good school with a multi-cultural vibe and tolerance.  Not that she and Jackie had any children.  Well, not quite yet.

Ramona got in her red Nissan Sentra, a car she had been nursing along since 2003.  No sense spending all their money on fancy new cars.  She would rather invest it in the house and well, other special contingencies.  As she settled in behind the car, she patted her belly, and realized that one of those special contingencies just might be starting up.  As she backed out the driveway, she thought for a moment of turning towards the middle school, and just finding Jackie and tell him the news.  Then she felt guilty, and decided there was too much to do at the office.

As she turned down Magnolia Street, she saw Barry Mincher in his front yard, in his pajamas, just sitting in a lawn chair, smoking a cigar.  He waved at her, and she gave a tiny wave back.  She shuddered a second, thinking back to the way things could have been.  They were hot and heavy back in high school days, but Barry's life had taken a sharp turn for the worst since then.  Barry had been in prison for drug-related crimes, and now was just a night stocker at Yeltin's IGA.  She shouldn't feel like this, she thought.  Barry was a nice fellow in many ways.  Still, she was extremely grateful she had straightened herself out and met Jackie.

Ramona passed the church she and Jackie attended, Magnolia AME, the largest African American church in Dixon County.  She would have loved to go to a multi-cultural church, but that just didn't exist around here, particularly one with a charismatic spirit, tolerance and a concern for social action and justice.  It was a good church home.  It was not her fault that Sunday church time was the most segregated hour of the week.

She came into the Round, officially titled Crowley Circle, but no one called it that.  It was a rectangular square of buildings that had a circular roundabout at the center.  It included government buildings like the Courthouse and City Hall and the police station. It had professional offices like the law firm she worked at, old Doc Stratton the chiropractor, and Graves & Robinson, a CPA firm that had recently fallen on hard times, what with Houston Graves Jr. leaving to work with the Compton Park Development, and Houston GravesSr., just having had a heart attack three days ago.  She liked Gariton Hollander, their now very busy staff accountant, and their new assistant, Janet Roper.  She had even had a few lunches with Janet over at the Honey Dew, which was also on the Round.

She was surprised to see that the door was not locked.  Usually, she was the first one there.  She looked out into the parking lot and saw Rondy's blue F-150.  Well, that worm was early for a change!  Whatever he was doing, it must not be an early morning rendezvous with Christie Delco Hollander, what with the door unlocked.  But what they hey!  The cat was way out of that bag now.  No need for sneaking anymore.  She had heard that Gariton took a swipe at Rondy at The Oasis.  Hard to believe that mild-mannered Gariton could be pushed that far, but she could hardly blame him.

She put her purse on her desk and saw that Rondy's door was cracked open.  "Rondy?  Are you here?" she called out.  "You want me to start some coffee?"

There was no response.  She noticed his office door was cracked open, but his light was off.  "Rondy?  Are you in there in the dark?"

She opened the door and flipped the light switch.  Why, Rondy was in there!  He was slumped over his desk, probably sleeping off a bender.  He was awful still, and his head was angled kinda funny.  And what was that all over his desk?  Tomato soup?  As far as she knew, Rondy wasn't a soup eater.  A hangover cure gone spilled maybe.

Then she knew, and her flesh creeped.  There was a hole in the center of Rondy's forehead.  That wasn't soup.  That was blood.

Thoughts of work assignments left her, as did thoughts about a positive pregnancy test less than an hour ago.  Soon she would call 911, then dash out to the police station.  But at first, all she could do was scream.

Buy the whole book!  Check your favorite online retailer TODAY!

Shaking Off the Wednesday Blues

I didn't have a very good day yesterday.

We had a review of our work at the accounting firm I am employed with.  There were a number of problems with an assignment I handled, and although there was nothing horribly wrong, it was enough to make me feel pretty bad and inadequate. Accounting can be quite discouraging to me, at least as something fulfilling to do, or something I can feel a large sense of accomplishment.  It's something that I can do adequately, and customarily with a high degree of accuracy, but it is not something I can shine in, nor receive a great deal of recognition.

I would love to leave accounting, but I am a responsible person, and I want to do what's right by my family, and not have to endure financial sacrifices for me to do so.  So I have spent the last few years building up my ability in something I enjoy more and was hoping might build to be a supplemental income over time.  So I write, for enjoyment and personal satisfaction, but also in hopes that it can accelerate my phase out from accounting.

But on the same day when my nose is being shoved into my inadequacies as an accountant, I receive a major blow to getting some of the recognition I crave as a writer.  An affirmation I was hoping to get was not to be.   Was I wasting my time?   Was I also a mediocre writer?  Am I all quantity and very little quality?  It caused me to have doubts in the very thing that I was hoping would lead me out of the accounting wilderness.  And on the very day when I needed to be most assured.

I was low and getting lower.

And then the evening came.  And I got an important reality check.  A great kick in the pants as to what it's important.

Benjamin had his first performance with the school pep band.

That's Benjamin, in the middle, waving, holding the big ol' baritone horn.

Benjamin has had a rough time in 8th grade.  He is in a classroom pod with many boys who are athletic and/or quite different than Benjamin, and he was having a hard time making friends.  Then he joined Pep Band, and he has discovered that band was actually fun, and he was making new friends, outside of the bullies that dominated his regular classroom.  He has joined student council, Beta Club and a student group that tests new school lunch items.  I am so proud of him.

It did me good to see Benjamin doing so well, and having a good time.  I also saw other friends, like Kimberly Beck and her two girls that are part of a dance troupe called the Blue Diamonds.  There was even a football game going on that I found myself being drawn into.  I found myself getting excited and cheering, surprising myself with my unexpected participation.

Yes, it's amazing how good life can be when you pull your head out of your own ass.

Would I like to be a writer?  Yes.  Am I likely to make much money off of it?  Probably not.  Will I stop writing?

Hell, no.  Even if it's just for me, even if it is just one hand clapping, I will not stop.  Come along for the ride or not.  That is up to you.

But the ride will be here, for anyone who wants to climb aboard.  No admission charged.

At least right now.

Bwahahaha!

Ripping Good Yarns: Five to Try

It's a new Fall TV season!

Not the same ring it used to have, but at least for the broadcast networks, they still present a fleet of new programs.

Of these, the Strait Household may sample a quarter or less.  I think that would be typical of most Rippers (at least those that deign to admit they watch TV).

As time escapes, I am not doing my evening to evening breakdown quite the same as last year.  I will do a series of stories highlighting different aspects of the new season.

In this post, I am sharing the five series we are most likely to try.  I have read both Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide, and the series I selected are listed as "best of the new season" in one or both magazines.

Gotham! Fox Mondays at 8 PM.  Yet ANOTHER retelling of the Batman story, this time starting with the the brutal murders of Bruce Wayne's parents.  It is designed to focus on the city of Gotham, it's incredible corruption, and the beginning of many in the Batman canon.  We saw the premiere showing last night and give it a thumbs up.  Benjamin wants to see it as well, so it will be a full family series at the Strait household.

Black-ish  starts tonight (Wednesday at 9:30 on ABC), having the sweet spot right after Modern Family.  It has some echoes of The Cosby Show, featuring an upper middle class African American family.  It promises to have a point of view (like some of the great situation comedies of the 70s), but with an amusing bite, and characters that  (hopefully) you can grow to love.  It is the only new comedy we are considering at this point.

How to Get Away With Murder  premiers Thursday on ABC at 10 PM.  It is done by the brilliant TV creator, Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Scandal) and stars the highly talented Viola Davis as a law school professor who is also a criminal defense attorney, spinning herself and her students into an intriguing web of cases.

 Gracepoint premieres Thursday at 9 on Fox, and is pretty much a straight ripoff of the British series Broadchurch.  I was only able to see one episode of the series, but it was very good, and I am looking forward to trying this Americanized version.  As to who that guy is standing at cliff's edge?  Yeah, that's Doctor Who (David Tennant), taking on an American accent (he played the same part in Broadchurch).  The woman with him?  Well, uh, I guess that would be his, uh, "companion".

The Flash! will be on Tuesdays at 8 on the CW.  The guy playing it looks more like Wally West to me than Barry Allen, but what do I know?  Although the costume looks a little cheesy, the speed scenes look awesome, and it's comes from the same people that do Arrow, a show that has improved rapidly over the last season.

Jane the Virgin (CW Mondays at 9) looks bizarre enough that I may have to try it at least once, and since I have read over a hundred comics featuring him, I will probably at least sample Constantine (Fridays at 10 PM on NBC).

There are, of course, many other new shows premiering.  NCIS spinoffs are threatening to subsume all of CBS's schedule, for example.  But please, fellow Rippers and others, if you have other shows you have sampled or are thinking about sampling, please let us know.  I want to hear from you!

Soon Swimming to a Theater Near You! (Well, Waycross, anyways)

One of the funniest plays to ever hit the WACT stage is headed your way starting October 2nd!

I have been involved in many plays over the years, at least over sixty productions.  I have never had the privilege of participating in one where the acting has come together so quickly and effectively.  Our five outstanding actresses know their lines and have BECOME their CHARACTERS.

If you like to laugh, if you like to have your heart touched, if you want to see the very best community theater has to offer, than make plans now to miss this wonderful show.  Call in your reservations today!

Anna Pinder is the athletic team captain, Sheree Hollinger, obsessed with detail and preparing the scariest health food on the planet.  Mary Beth Kennedy is Lexi Richards, a woman who knows about sexy and that the world does indeed revolve around her.  Nadine Borrelli is Vernadette Simms, the hard luck teacher whose life is like a sad country song, but faces it with humor and spirit, and will defend Southern biscuits with every breath in her body.  Caroline Sanford is Jeri Neal McFeeley, the ex-nun with the heart of gold who brings a little something extra to the first reunion we see.  And Rhonda Powers is Dinah Grayson, the high powered Atlanta attorney who has a martini shaker and knows how to use it.

Seriously, folks, you don't want to miss this one!

How's That Hopey-Changey Thing Going Saturday Political Soap Box 92

Recently, I had someone close to me inquired as to whether they voted for Obama,  They had, but weren't particularly openly political - politics was a personal thing for them, and not something they cared to debate in public (unlike me).  Without explicitly saying who they voted for, the person asking deduced from body language and a hesitancy to answer directly that they had indeed voted for Obama.  So the next the person asked was, "How's that hopey-changey thing going?"

So, how is that hopey-changey thing going?

Well, considering where we started out from, pretty darn good, actually.

The country and the globe stood on the verge of complete economic collapse, largely due to policies that led to unregulated banking, concentration of wealth, and unchecked exploitation of the poor and middle class (home mortgages, usurious interest rate,student loan and medical debt, the paycheck loan industry, etc.).  President Obama pulled us back, or the Second Great Depression would have become a reality and an abyss.

Our economy has recovered faster than it has in Europe.  Our economy has recovered faster than it did under Reagan (even though the recession was miles milder), according to Forbes Magazine and other recent stats I have seen.  The stock market is at an all time high.

Could it have recovered faster?  Certainly, although not instantaneously - we were in way too deep for that.  But the American people, in all its gerrymandered glory, decided in 2010 to send to Congress a TeaPartyAmerika controlled House, a group who is more interested in making the President look bad than they are in moving this country and economy forward.

We still have an American auto industry in this country thanks to the President and a Democratic Congress.

We have a President who has killed more terrorists than any other, including killing Osama Bin Laden.  He wound down our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.  But make no mistake.  The Bush/Cheney Iraq War was the most brutal and stupid military move in decades, if not all of American history, and that mistake will have effects on us and the Middle East for DECADES to come.

We are at least recognizing that climate change/global warming is the most serious problem on the planet, and is doing everything he can to pull us into the greatest battle of the 21st century, the battle to keep our planet livable.

He has lowered student interest rates.  He has signed into law the Lillie Ledbetter Act, an important tool in helping solve the great pay divide between men and women.  He has put into effect Financial Reform legislation.  He has created, led by Elizabeth Warren, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, designed to be a consumer advocate against the more exploitative acts by financial institutions.

He has accomplished the greatest health care reform act in a century or more.  Even as the name Obamacare continues to be childishly reviled, the individual things the Affordable Care Act is doing are becoming more and more popular. It is accomplishing everything it set out to do, and at a quicker pace than expected.  Unless, of course, you're in one of those hissy-fit red states that is fighting the law tooth and nail.  I'm talking to you, Georgia!  My conservative friends are disappointed as to how it's working in Georgia?  It's not working because the utter and complete choke hold Republicans have on this state won't LET it succeed.

You think the President is not compromising enough?  You've got to be kidding, right?  I have never in my life seen a President try to bend over backwards as far as President Obama has to try to include Republican ideas.  And it just doesn't matter.  The Republicans only goal is tell the President NOOOO, no matter what he says.

Could we have made more progress under McCain/Palin or Romney/Ryan?  Hahahahahahaha!  You can't possibly believe that.  How many wars would be in if McCain were President?  How much bigger would the wealth gap be if Romney were in charge?  Does anyone out there with any economic sense believe austerity measures get you out of a recession? Do you think social issues would be any different?  The American people are changing their views on those regardless of who is President.

I would have loved for us to do more.  I would love for us to have single payer health care.  I would love for us to reduce NSA spying.  I would love for the fatty parts of the defense budget to be cut.  I wish we didn't use drones so much.  I wish some of the bankers that brought us down would be tried and imprisoned.  I fervently pray that we do ten times more on combating global warming than we are doing.  I wish we would stopping messing with private for profit charter schools and rededicate  ourselves to public education.  I wish we would increase the minimum wage to the point that we can decrease our reliance on social safety net programs.

Yes, there is much that has been done and much left to be done.

But as long as Mr. Gerrymander rules over the House, as long as many congressional districts decide to send lunatics to that legislative branch, as long as there is no price to pay for Republicans to behave like stubborn spoiled children, progress towards a brighter future will be slowed, even stalled.

You say you are disappointed in that hopey-changey thing?  Then here is the most important thing you can do -

Vote for a Democratic Congressman and Senator.  Not because they're perfect.  But because you want to send a message - no more obstructionists!  Let's get the work of this country done!

Into the Contest Rode the 57

The deadline for the first annual Okefenokee Heritage Center Writer's Guild Writing Contest has passed.

We have a total of 57 entries, 56 on their way to judges.

This is not bad for a first year effort, and is comparable to the level of participation in the Ben Smith Art Contest, the winners of which will be announced at the same event as ours, on October 2nd.

The number of adult entries to secondary is fairly balanced.  The adults have 31 compared to secondary's 25.  The elementary group was a problem, with only one entry (which is why that one entry is not on it's way to a judge).  Hopefully, that can be addressed for next year's contest.

We still have a ways to go, getting the judges scoring sheets back, collating results, getting certificates of achievement ready, getting cash prizes ready, winners informed and announced, post promotion of winning entries.  But I am pleased with what we have done so far.

Success takes diverse hands.

I want to thank Leslie Crane and Robert Stewart for promoting the contest and bringing in entries from their prospective schools.

I want to thank Julianna Lacefield for have taken our entry forms and information to individual schools in Ware County.

I want to thank Barbara Griffin and Lamar Deal for securing the adult judges and devising the scoring system.

I want to thank Elizabeth Welch for her kind and generous financial donation.  Between Elizabeth, The Strait Line and entry fees, we have no trouble meeting the costs of the contests.

I want to thank Michael Lee and April Sheuring for their participation and support, especially at a time when I was feeling particularly battered and low.

I want to thank each and every guild member that participated and assisted, and everyone who took the time to prepare a story or poem for our contest.

I want to thank Steve and Betty of the Heritage Center for their kind help in collecting the entry fees, organizing our bookkeeping, and preparing the entries for the judge's packets.

I hope this is only the beginning.  I hope that as we learn from experience, and the contest becomes more well known, we only grow and have a positive impact on our community.

No Bookstore Escape Monday Musings

City lights bookstore in San Francisco.

Yes, darting off to the other side of the country to visit a progressive bookstore sounds like an ideal escape for a busy, busy week! But alas, there is no escape.

The writing contest deadline is today, and even though it looks the number of entries is going to be crushingly disappointing, I must soldier it on to its conclusion.  With the help of Steve Bean and other OHC personnel, the entries must be organized and judge's packets prepared and sent out. Once we know how many entries we have, then I will need to initiate the process of getting the elementary and secondary contestants certificates of participation. Hopefully the work that we have done will lay the groundwork for higher levels of participation in future years.

The WACT play that I am directing, The Dixie Swim Club, is also hitting a crucial stage.  Tonight's rehearsal is the first completely off book, no line prompting (theoretically).  There are still some props and staging that needs to be done.  Soon I need to introduce Alison and Benjamin into the mix, and get them started on their jobs helping. I must say, overall, that The Dixie Swim Club is about as far along as I have seen any play at this point in its rehearsals.

I have work stacked to the wazoo at my job.  We have made it to the corporate deadline of the 15th, but there are still non-profits to prepare, and my regular work to catch up.

I have jury duty on Friday, and a special assignment to do for church, so it will be the second Friday in a row that I will lose my major day to write fiction.  I am starting to turn a corner on some projects, passing the point where there is more done than is left to do, so I am anxious to get back to it.

I go back and forth on ISIS, between whether the President's response is appropriate, or whether it will make things worse.  The only thing I know for sure is that the McCain/Romney approach of over-aggression and multiple wars would be disastrous.  Yes, Bush/Cheney are completely to blame for this mess we're in, forever and ever amen, but we have to deal with it somehow.

Football was miserable this weekend.  Yes, the Wolverines defeated a team with one of the longest losing streaks in major college conference football.  The rest, however, was deflatingly bad.  It's early still, but it does not look promising.

We still have Sally, available for adoption.  She is going to make somebody a fantastic pet, so maybe she can find a home locally.  She certainly deserves it.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait